Woah, stop the world, I wanna get off! This was the loudest thought in my head throughout the week. Everything was happening too fast and everything was going a little too wrong. It was a series of unfortunate events something that I’m not unfamiliar with (things tend to go very wrong, very quickly at the worst possible times in my life). The good thing was that this wasn’t the worst of times for a change. Here’s a quick summary:

On Sunday the building I live in floods from the penthouse causing water to go through all the main electrical installations and down the lift. They turn off the water supply to the penthouse and the electric supply to our flats to prevent any fires or electrocutions. Thankfully, no water went through the flats as it found its way down through the lift shaft and the electrical installations. This happens just as I am on my way out to meet up with my friend Monica who I haven’t seen in a few months. I tell her that I can’t make it right away because of what’s happened and that I’ll try to go out and find her later. When I do, she is nowhere to be found and she is not picking up her phone or answering my texts. I send her a last message showing I’m upset and that I’m going home.

On Monday morning my dad calls and tells me that a relative passed away the night before. It was a distant relative but this still isn’t good news. We have electricians over trying to dry all the cables and replace the fuses that had gotten wet or had tripped. The electric was scheduled to be reconnected at 18:00. Some idiot decides that it would be a good idea to turn on the water supply to the penthouse. At 17:30 everything floods again and the electricity cannot be turned on until everything has been dried and replaced once more. Lots of swearing behind the idiot’s back occurs mainly by me but also by the other residents. Everything in my freezer is slowly melting away and I discover that Ben & Jerry’s Chocolate Fudge Brownie soup is just as good as the ice cream version of it. While at work I receive an email from my boss that makes me feel totally unappreciated and like I’m an object. Later on he tries to make up for it but instead makes it even worse by what he says. He is completely unaware that I’m upset.

On Tuesday I’m feeling very awkward at work because of what happened the day before even though no one else knows how I am feeling as I keep it to myself, so the awkwardness affects just me. I come home after work to find the lobby has been turned into a manky indoor water puddle; another pipe on the second floor of the other half of the building has burst. Water is dripping from every light in the ceiling and it’s also coming down on the outside of the building inducing giggles to the people passing by. They turn off the water supply to the whole building while they try to figure out what is causing this. Some doodah in the water pump is knackered making it think we need more water when we don’t, hence all the pipe bursting. Through lengthy discussions we get the electricity back on in our flat while we are on our way out to get something to eat (there’s nothing edible in the flat and without water there’s not much we could do anyway). When we come back they have managed to bypass something and have turned the water back on in our flat as well. Monica sends me a text apologising about Sunday, her mum was not well and she had to go home.

Wednesday comes and I can finally take a warm shower in the morning. The day goes a lot better as I’m over what happened on Monday and realised that it wasn’t worth letting it affect me. It is another busy day at work but as it’s the third day in a row when we haven’t even had the time to pee, a couple of us decide to go for a drink as soon as we finish. We end up drinking until almost 10pm, just me and two of the managers (one of them is my manager). We have an incredible time and the themes of the drunken conversation alternate between politics, homosexuality, marriage, vegetarianism, prejudice, offensive everyday expressions (that we are not aware they are offensive) in between of our trying to figure out whose round it is.

Thursday is surprisingly hangover-free and even though I am starting to feel too tired I make it through the day while being very productive. My manager gets hit by a taxi on his way to a presentation but luckily he’s not hurt apart from a few scrapes.

On Friday I have an incredibly busy day at work. I’m feeling more tired than ever, yet I manage to do a lot of things. In the evening Monica texts me again to tell me her mum has passed away. I feel bad for not being nicer to her earlier in the week. At least it sounds like her mum didn’t suffer and went peacefully.

On Friday and yesterday I restocked the fridge and freezer. We’re now back to normal. Hopefully nothing bad will happen again for a while. Wait, oh shit, did I just jinx it?

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Written by Colin Brooks on 17.06.07 at 5:20 pm.